Who's my secret Santa?
by Ecofinisher
Summary: Miss Bustier's class were picking for the annual Secret Santa game a little post-it note and Nathaniel gets flustered as he coincidently picked out his crush. (For ML Holiday Month on Tumblr, Day 11: Secret Santa)


**Day 11**

**Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah everybody. **

* * *

„Dear class next week, we've got our last week before Christmas eve and Rose asked me if we could again like last year do a Secret Santa between all of us again" Miss Bustier announced as she got up from her chair with a bunch of small post-it notes, then took a square-formed pencil holder and dropped the writing utensils on her table to put the notes inside it, then she placed her left hand over the hole and shook it to shuffle all the notes in the holder and walked forward to Chloe and Sabrina, then Chloé stuck her hand in it mixing it with her hand while sticking her tongue out.

Afterward, she picked a name out and she looked at it.

„Ugh for real?" Chloé asked annoyed, then Sabrina opened her note too and looked at her best friend.

„Who do you got?" Sabrina questioned.

„Dupain-Cheng" Chloé answered.

„I've got Ivan" Sabrina responded

„I better keep her, it's easier to find a present for her"

„I can help you if you want. I know some things she might like"

„Great and I help you with yours….or I try. I don't know, what he likes thought,"

„We'll see it then" Sabrina responded, then observed Miss Bustier let Max Kanté and Kim Chien Le take out a note from the holder and take a look at it.

„Max, you really need to help me out with this one, " Kim asked looking sad at the tan-skinned boy.

„Is it Chloé again?"

„No worse…... Miss Bustier" Kim whispered making Max chuckle.

„I've got her" Max mentioned rolling his eyes at Myléne, which was showing Alix the note, where he could clearly see the name of the secret person of Mylene, which was Alya Césaire.

Miss Bustier was now at the other side of the classroom at the last desk, where Nathaniel Kurtzberg sat along with his deskmate Lila Rossi. Both reached with their hand at the pencil holder, then Nathaniel stopped before getting in along with Lila, then he pulled his hand back a little to allow the girl pick up first a name. Nathaniel afterward stuck his hand inside the holder picking out the first paper piece he could find and held it closer to his face, then opened it up to see the name of his secret santa. Nathaniel turned a little red at the name he read on the paper, then he rolled his eyes at Lila to see her smirking at the name she's got.

„What a coincidence, I've got myself, " Kagami said, who sat beside Ivan that looked down at his deskmate showing her name on the note.

„You can pick out another one and put yours back" Miss Bustier suggested leaning the holder closer to the blue-haired girl, which placed her hand again inside it taking another paper out and place the old one back with the other hand.

„Thank you Miss Bustier, " Kagami said opening her note to reveal the name of the person, she has to organize a gift. „Wonder who's going to get my name"

„Me too" Lila added closing her note, then looked at Nathaniel, who had already put his note in the pocket of his pants. „What about you, Nathaniel?"

„I what…..yeah I'm wondering too" Nathaniel added.

„Who do you got?" Lila asked making Nathaniel wide his eyes in shock.

„I….but we're not allowed to tell it" Nathaniel mentioned.

„I know, but between friends, it's okay" Lila mentioned. „Kim and Chloé asked their best friend about it too and they know it. They won't tell it, anyone, else, right?"

„I guess not"

„And so won't I and you definitely too"

„Well I guess I could"

„I've got Nino, " Lila said right after Nathaniel had finished his sentence.

„Okay I got…..uhm….." Nathaniel mumbled gazing around the classroom looking at his classmates, then found a solution to cover his note. „Kagami"

„You're kidding me, right?" Lila asked chuckling at his answer.

„N...no I'm not" Nathaniel answered rapidly, watching Lila shake her head.

„Her name was given to Kagami before, afterward she had put it back in the cup and it went out to someone else. It's either Adrien, Nino, Marinette or Alya. You're not on the list"  
„Did I say Kagami?" Nathaniel asked widening his eyes pretending to be surprised at his reaction. „I meant Kim…..I just wanted to make sure you ….would pay attention"

„Don't worry, I'm a great listener"

„Yeah I know" Nathaniel confirmed earning a nod from Lila, which looked back in front at the interactive blackboard, where Miss Bustier had displayed an essay, that the students had to for the coming Friday. Nathaniel looked in front to see, what Miss Bustier was doing and he took out from his jacket his smartphone unlocking it, therefore he searched on the display for a green-colored messenger app and pressed on it to enter into it, revealing a list with names of classmates and students he's on good terms with and he picked the third contact which belonged to a boy named Luka Couffaine.

„_We're doing that Secret Santa gifting thing and I picked out Lila's name. Help!" _Nathaniel typed down followed by a frightened emoji and pressed on the arrow next to his sentence to send the boy the message.

Nathaniel put his smartphone back in his pocket, then looked at Lila, who was writing down on a small block the homework. A few seconds later he took out his smartphone out, pressing the home button to light up the screen to see Luka had replied to the redhead.

„_Meet me at my houseboat. We can see, what we can do"_

* * *

In the evening Nathaniel sat in the living room of the Couffaine's houseboat next to his childhood friend Luka, which held a block on his hand noting down with a pen, ideas for a Christmas present Nathaniel could get for his desk mate.

„So I found a few ideas for you, that you could get easily here in Paris in any store for the _Secret Santa thingy"_

„I know I might have said it wrong, but I'm not a Christian like you" Nathaniel mentioned making Luka laugh.

„I know, I'm just kidding." Luka implied looking at his friend, that wasn't amused with his jokes.

„Come on Luka, I only got a week and I want to give her the best gift, she can get"

„Why don't you draw her as a superhero or something?" Luka suggested making Nathaniel shake his head.

„No. I don't want to draw her anything, cause it would be obvious to her or anyone else, that it was from me. I thought about something she would never expect from me" The redhead explained.

„What about you create something by using your skills you're less good at?"

„I'm not great at maths. But what can I do with maths? Write her a math poem?" Nathaniel asked a little unsure, seeing Luka shook his head at his idea.

„No, not that kind of skill. Something else, maybe you could cook or bake her something, sew something, write a song or build something with wood or anything else,"

„Sewing or building something seems quite easier for me to not screw up. Building at least. I'm not very fond of sewing"

„For sure you want to build something?" Luka asked earning a nod from the shorter boy. „What do you have in mind?"

„I…..uh...I have to think" Nathaniel confessed, then Luka handed him out the block for him to be able to notice any ideas he would get during the period.

„A star made of wood?" Questioned Nathaniel looking at Luka.

„Is an idea, what else could you do?"

„I don't know…..we could check the internet for more ideas?" Nathaniel suggested watching Luka unlock his smartphone, opening the internet browser and wrote down_ wood-made things._

„A box like this one would be good for her to keep things in it"

„Maybe, wonder for what she could need one. I have never been to her house"

„Maybe for makeup utensils?" Luka mentioned. „My sister has one"

„Okay, what else could we check there, " Nathaniel asked looking at the screen of Luka's smartphone as he scrolled through all the different images on the site.

„Board games?"

„I don't know, I feel this is kind of more for kids"

„A board with a quote on it?" Luka suggested stopping at an image with a rectangular-shaped wood with a quote about faith.

„A little boring"

„Wow look they made a console out of wood. What is a personal object Lila likes a lot, that you could do for her?"  
„It's impossible for me to make something like that with my minor experience in handicraft."

„Well maybe not like the console, something else like a guitar"

„I think it's still hard, no matter what I pick" Nathaniel mentioned making Luka chuckle.

„You're very complicated Nathaniel"

„I'm not complicated, I just overthink a little too much"

„Okay I see…..hey what about a bookshelf like this one?"

„And it shouldn't be that big, that everyone in the school would note"

„You're being complicated, boy" Luka mentioned making Nathaniel growl.

„Luka, I asked you to help me"

„I'm trying Nate,"

„I know, looks I pick a picture frame maybe shaped like a heart or a flower and in the end I ask Alix or Rose to paint it with me" Nathaniel responded as Luka opened the search bar to look for something else, then widened his eyes as he had another idea.

„Hey what about you do something like this hexagonal prism here out from a tree trunk or so, then add on its sides framework, where Lila could add images on it and in the end decorate or paint it?" Luka suggested showing Nathaniel the image making Nathaniel furrow his eyebrows, then he smiled excitedly as he found out what he could do.

„I think I've got a plan" Nathaniel announced looking up at Luka, which smiled at him back amused he could help Nathaniel good.

„And what are you planning to?" Luka asked watching Nathaniel draw the prism on the note block.

* * *

The next Monday after the school Nathaniel ran out of the wardrobe with his messenger bag towards the stairs to the second floor, racing them up, heading towards the last classroom on the end of the level, where the raven-haired boy Luka stood with another boy, which gave him a fist bump before he walked away from the entrance of the classroom. Nathaniel arrived and looked up at the older friend.

„Mr. Bois had ordered a shaped trunk for you to work on, cause none of the machines in our classroom are able to remove the bark and the other rests of it. I find it looks fine for you to start doing your work" Luka noted entering along with the redhead into the classroom, where two other students were around working on a wooden bench together with the teacher observing them sanding the lean of the rectangular-shaped object.

„Mr. Bois, this is my friend I was talking about, " Luka said catching the attention of the brunette man, which looked at the musician standing there with the Jewish boy.

„Oh welcome to my classroom Nathaniel" Mr. Bois welcomed walking towards the two boys. „Your friend Luka told me you wanted to make a special present for a certain someone, am I right?" The teacher asked watching Nathaniel roll his eyes away in embarrassment.

„Y….yeah" He responded. „She's in my class"

„Have you got any idea, how you're going to start with the work or what you have planned to do?" The man asked watching Nathaniel open the hood of the messenger bag to take out a white A6 sheet with a sketch of the prism, including the details he wanted to add on the project.

„Well, my idea would be all the six sides have on the top a rectangular-shaped frame for her to be able to add an image. Every second side has under it a round frame and the other ones have this type of flower shape" Nathaniel explained to the teacher showing him his detailed sketch of the gift he wants to create for Lila Rossi.

„You're very talented in things as details….oh and what about the head?" The teacher questioned, then Nathaniel wide his eyes as he forgot to mention that part.

„Oh uh I'm still not sure what to do there. First I planned the Italian flag, then a fox head, then both and now I'm a little unsure, what to pick"

„Well you can choose that later, first, you need to work on the body of your trunk, add the frames on it, scoop out a little from the sides, draw the shapes you want on a sheet, so you can use it later to shape the frames and saw it in the correct shape"

„Yeah" Nathaniel replied, then Luka removed from his arm a hairband and handed it out to the friend. „For what is that"

„Safety" Luka responded. „You need to tie your hair when you're going to use any of the machines here"

„I thought I would have to saw them all by hand" Nathaniel mentioned seeing Luka shrug his shoulders.

„Maybe you won't need to do all by hand, but just in case you're going to use any of the machines, your hair and head is at least save"  
„You're describing it as if I had never had handicraft lessons"

„Elementary school didn't have any machines back in our time"

„Well I gotta give you right on that" Nathaniel admitted, then looked at his plan, then back at his trunk, that was already refined to be processed by the hands of the boy. „I better start now, it's going to be a lot of work"

„Good, you're going to have a lot of fun on it" Luka affirmed placing his hand on Nathaniel's shoulder.

„Oh and if you see Lila, Rose or anyone else. Tell them I'm….somewhere but not here, can I count on you?" Nathaniel asked earning a nod from the Couffaine boy, then he left the redhead alone who walked across the room to the end of it, where there lied on a table couple of woods boards lied in various sizes. Nathaniel grabbed a few boards, making his way to the side, where the teacher's desk was and he grabbed a few misprinted A4 sheets, thereafter Nathaniel returned to his table spreading the stuff on the table and he took out from his bag his case to take out a pencil and a small ruler, after that he started to measure the trunk. He placed under the ruler his finger, followed by moving the ruler over his finger, placing it under his finger, again he made that move as he kept trying to measure the trunk with the small ruler while calculating the numbers.

One of the guys, that had stopped with grinding the bench looked at what Nathaniel was doing, then looked back at his own table, where there lied a wooden ruler of 60 cm and picked it up, walking up at the redhead, then watched Nathaniel place the ruler on the side of the trunk and realized someone was standing beside him and he looked up.

„Uh hi" Nathaniel greeted looking up at the older student. „Can I help you?"

„Hey. I just saw you measuring that trunk and since I saw you had that small ruler, I saw the one from the class here and thought about borrowing it to you, if you were interested" The tall boy suggested. „So you won't need to calculate every time you use yours"

„That's great, thank you, " Nathaniel said picking up the ruler of the classmate from Luka. „What's your name?"

„Christoph," He responded. „Aren't you that guy, that drew that Ladybug comic for the school blog?"

„Yeah"

„I read it and I gotta say, you're a very talented artist. Where did you learn to draw like that?" The boy asked watching Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.

„At home by myself" The redhead answered. „My comics and anime inspired me to it"

„You know, you could draw something anime-like on a sheet or on the wood and we could help you or show you how to engrave it on the wood."

„Maybe, first I need to see how it will turn out"

„Sure, you can ask us for help, if you need anything" Christoph responded walking back to the other friend, picking up another abrasive sandpaper to continue helping the other classmate with their bench.

Nathaniel measured up his trunk, then added points for about two centimeters away from the edge, then moved the trunk a little to the side to repeat the same task he did before.

* * *

On Friday during the last lesson in the morning the class had French history class the students sat in their place reading all a different book. Nino Lahiffe lied his book down next to his pad, then unlocked the device, which landed on an open word page with a few pages filled with words and started to type on the screen to resume the chapter he had just read, soon half of the class did the same on their ipads all tapping with their fingertips on the screen.

On the back of the class, Nathaniel had his eyes glued on the book, while beside him Lila had her hand under her chin while she was reading her book with a warm smile. Nathaniel rolled his eyes away from his book to look at the girl, smiling a little at the sight of the gorgeous girl beside him and he looked down at the feet of the girl, in front of the girl he spotted a large unwrapped gift with Lila's name on it with a large computer font to disguise her secret santa's actual calligraphy.

Lila closed her book, afterward, she glanced at Nathaniel, which had been looking at her, soon he quickly looked away from her turning a little red on the face.

„How many pages have you got until you're done with your book?" The Italian girl questioned making Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.

„Probably 100. I'm only on half of the book" Nathaniel answered making Lila nod. „And you?"

„I think about 160. There are at least 300 pages in this book"

„I get easily bored in reading books without pictures" Nathaniel mentioned making Lila chuckle.

„Explains why you choose a world war 2 book, which every kid in high school has read it at least one time in their lives "

„Why not….it's….interesting" Nathaniel responded. „I'm not reading it, because I know it or because it's not that big"

„Of course" Lila replied sarcastically, then Nathaniel looked at Lila's book and she showed him the cover. „You know that book?"

„Nope"

„It's about a young woman, who found a job as a companion for a man, that had become paralyzed after an accident a few years ago. She and the man dislike each other in the start, but with the time they become good friends and they fall in love,"

„I think there is a movie based on it" Nathaniel mentioned. „Doesn't he get euthanized in the end?"

„Hey! Don't ruin the book for me" Lila pouted while crossing her arms, making Nathaniel laugh.

„Who knows, maybe there are more movies with a similar plot" Nathaniel comforted Lila earning a nod from her.

Miss Bustier placed her book down on her table, then got up from her chair taking a blue-wrapped present, that she had in front of her computer and leaned beside her desk.

„Dear class before I allow you to your lunch break if you want you can open your presents now in front of each other and maybe you can figure out by yourself, who your secret Santa was" The redheaded teacher declared watching all the students taking from under their table. Adrien, Kagami, Ivan, Rose and Sabrina had their secret gift on top of their desk and they picked it up and ripped the wrapping paper off.

„Hey wow a Ryuko action figure" Kim revealed excited as he had opened his present. „That's the last one I needed to collect for my superhero collection" Kim mentioned looking at the class, then Adrien gave Nino a fist bump who smirked back at the blonde. Nino and Adrien both unwrapped their gifts off to see their gifts.

„Hey an ear warmer!" Nino announced. „I've been looking around, but I couldn't find them anywhere"

„Really?" Adrien asked a little surprised. „There were a lot of them at the Hot Bananas store"

„I saw none of these stores" Nino mentioned checking his new earbuds out and found the tag. „Oh it is from Hot Bananas"

„Hey I've got bath bombs" Adrien mentioned taking a look on his box and wide his eyes as he saw, what scent it had. „Oh it's passion fruit, who knew that?"

„I think I knew who it was" Alya mentioned rolling her eyes at Marinette, which had looked back at Adrien in surprise at seeing him with the present.

„Uhm I didn't have him, I had Kagami" Marinette answered seeing behind Adrien Kagami hold a red-colored crystal lamp.

On the back, Nathaniel opened his present, which was a blue-colored crystal lamp similar to Kagami's.

„Wow, " Nathaniel said as he saw the gift he received. Lila beside him checked the large gift out, then Nathaniel looked at her and thought on outwitting Lila about the present.

„Oh wow Lila, I wonder, what present is in there" Nathaniel stated watching Lila remove the paper off her gift, then as she got to see the present she widened her eyes in shock at the gift she had become. The hexagonal-shaped trunk had been colored in three different colors, symbolizing the nationality of the brunette and on the top of the trunk, there was a nearly-well done paint of an anime fox head in the middle of the object. Around the trunk on the top, it had rectangular-shaped frames that had on each corner a fake gold-colored nail to tighten the frame on the trunk. Under the first frames, it had a circle-shaped and a flower-shaped frame but colored in the opposite color as of the site the frame was.

„Is that, what you have been working the whole last week?"

„I kind of had help from Luka and some…..wa….wait…..how did you figure it out?" Nathaniel asked shocked as Lila figured it out immediately.

„You didn't think I would fall for your tries of keeping it a secret, didn't you?" Lila asked with a smirk making Nathaniel sink his head down.

„Well, it was worth trying, " Nathaniel said looking back at her. „At least until we could reveal it later"

„Aww thank you so much, this has been one of the greatest gifts I have ever received from someone" Lila thanked the seatmate making him smile.

„I guess the many splitters I've got from sanding were worth it" Nathaniel mentioned making Lila giggle.

„Oh no, that must have been awful to deal with"

„It still was worth it, " The redhead said. „I made you happy and that's what mattered to me" Nathaniel admitted seeing Lila smile at him angelic and Nathaniel looked down a little shy, making Lila grin and place her hand on his shoulder.

„Wish I could have given you something too"

„It's not necessary" He answered earning a small nod from Lila.

„Maybe I can come up with something for your birthday or any other day"

„If you want to" Nathaniel added getting up from his chair followed by Lila. „Do you need help in carrying it?"

„No it's alright" Lila answered. „Thank you for questioning it,

Nathaniel smiled at the brunette as the bell of the school rang, announcing the start of the midday and all students got up from their chair putting their stuff away in their bag.

„Are you….going to stay over midday here at the school?" Nathaniel asked seeing Lila shake her head.

„My grandparents are here over Christmas until January the 10th. I'm going to have lunch together with them"

„That's fantastic" Nathaniel admitted earning a smile from the girl.

„We'll see each other in the afternoon, don't worry" Lila answered placing her hand over his shoulder, leaning her face to Nathaniel's face giving him a gentle kiss on the cheeks, turning them pink. Soon before Lila left she ruffled Nathaniel's hair and picked up her messenger back and the gift, then accompanied Kagami, that had been standing in front of their desk waiting for the friend. Nathaniel observed Lila leaving at the exit of the classroom, then Rose and Juleka appeared beside him gazing at their childhood friend.

„Did you like Juleka's present?" Rose asked seeing Nathaniel gaze lovely at the door, where Lila had left and Rose exchanged looks with Juleka, then she hugged the redhead from behind excited.

„Oh you're totally in love with her, my boy!" Rose cried while Juleka covered her mouth to avoid laughing at the small girl. „Don't worry, we're going to help you out with her. I promise" Rose announced looking at the boy, which felt a little embarrassed with the situation, thereafter he picked up his gift and his messenger bag and left the classroom walking along with the girls on the side of the handrail looking down at the court, where he saw Lila walking together with Kagami, leaving him back with a delightful feeling in his heart.


End file.
